[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 15 (Wednesday, February 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H584]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HEALTH CARE CONSUMER BILL OF RIGHTS

  (Mr. WYNN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WYNN. Madam Speaker, good morning. We can tell it is an election 
year because my Republican colleagues rush down to the well yelling 
``Tax cut, tax cut.''
  I think the President is correct. He says we need to be fiscally 
responsible. We need to save Social Security first. We need to look 
forward to future generations. There may be, however, something that we 
can agree on and that is a Health Care Consumer Bill of Rights.
  I believe consumers need protection. The President has issued an 
Executive order saying that Federal employees, Medicare recipients, 
Medicaid recipients will all have that assurance. But we need it for 
all Americans.
  A recent California study showed that 42 percent of the patients in 
HMOs have encountered problems with their health care delivery service. 
My State of Maryland took the first step and implemented a guarantee to 
emergency room care. We need to do that. We also need to guarantee the 
security and privacy of medical records. We also need to ensure that 
Americans can gain access to health care specialists when they need 
them.
  Madam Speaker, we need to take the ``medicrats'' out of the health 
care business. We need to make sure that all Americans have a Health 
Care Consumers Bill of Rights.

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